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WHEN EVERYONE CHIPS IN, TRULY MAGICAL THINGS CAN HAPPEN!

Our charity is all about empowering our members to live independent lives and integrate into their local community. We know that having a permanent location and presence in the community will help our members to achieve this.

Thanks to the very generous support of our Patrons, Fundraising Partners, Local Businesses, and the local community we have been able to purchase Unit 5 in Balbriggan Retail Park which we plan to convert into our permanent base for our ‘Club’

The Property is just a SHELL with no utilities or facilities. It is approximately 7,500sq.ft.with a small mezzanine. We plan to extend this as we need the space and when completed the unit will be circa 10,000sq.ft.

Phase 1 of the Fit Out: – will include extending the mezzanine, installing a lift, fitting and connecting all electrics and plumbing and the construction of internal partitions. FOR THIS WE NEED CASH to hire a builder to do all this.

Phase 2 of the Fit Out: – will see us fit out the space to include

An Office – to accommodate 2-3 people.
A sports hall which will be used for our club sports activities.
3. 2 Activity rooms where our clubs will be held
A kitchen – The kitchen will provide our members a safe, secure, supported environment where they can learn vital independent-living and self-help skills. It will also be used by the parents while their sons and daughters are doing activities
A sensory room – this would be a quiet space fitted with soft furnishings and special sensory equipment.
A games room– again this would be a permanent fixture with pool table/air hockey/darts etc. to be used by our members as a ‘chill room’ and when they drop in.
Toilets- including a specially designed disabled toilet/wet room for our members who can’t self-support.
Storage space.

Please ‘GIVE NOW’

“HELP US MAKE THIS SPACE OUR HOME”

“WE NEED YOUR CASH TO MAKE THIS DREAM REAL”

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Our New Home

2016 will see Remember Us celebrating our 18th anniversary. We have come a long way over those years and we have been mindful for some time that we really need ‘A Home’for our organisation. We feel that now is the time to make this happen.
Currently we rent a small office in Balbriggan and we hire out various rooms and halls to cater for our activities. This fact has meant that we are restricted in the scope and range of activities we can offer our members. This is also an extra cost to our organisation and means we have to transport our equipment required each time for our various activities.

Having a permanent location and presence in the community would further help our members to be accepted and participate in the community. It would allow us to further develop our range of programmes and increase our membership.

We have identified a property that will cater for our needs. The property is a shell and core which will allow us to fit it out and tailor it to our needs.

The property is also on a bus route for ease of access for those travelling by public transport.

Current Funding

While we do receive some grants from the State, (mainly from the Dept of Children and Youth Affairs, which pays for our one staff position, and a grant from the HSE towards our programme activities) these grants cover approximately 50% or our running costs. We rely heavily on fundraising to make up the rest needed to allow us to continue to offer this VITAL service to our members and their families.
To supplement the grants for the ordinary day to day running costs we run a number of fundraising activities during the year such as bag packing, quizzes, bucket collections, raffles, participation in mini-marathons, etc.
We also encourage local groups like the Lions Clubs in Malahide, Balbriggan and Swords, Balbriggan, Prortmarnock, Lusk, Swords I.C.A.s and others to host fundraising events for us. We are constantly looking for fundraising opportunities.
From time to time companies and individuals sponsor events and make donations to our group.

What Next

new_home2 Over the years, through tireless fundraising and prudent housekeeping, we had, managed to save €150k towards the cost of purchasing a home of our own. In March 2014 we decided that we had to actively pursue our goal of acquiring our own Base and we engaged in a ‘second prong fundraising drive’ to raise the remaining funds needed to accomplish this. We did our research and a target of €600k was set, this amount will allow us to purchase a suitable property and allow us to fit it out to our special needs.
To enable us to succeed with our plan we have:

Changed from a ‘community group’ to a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee with no share capital.
We have registered as a Charity, in our own right, CHY21252
We have re-branded to assist us in informing the public of the positive impact our group has, not only on our members but on the local community.
We are looking to ‘The State’ for support by way of grants to assist us in purchasing this much needed ‘Home’ for Remember Us.
We have become members of both the Balbriggan Chamber of Commerce and the Fingal Dublin Chamber of Commerce, from whom we have received fantastic support.
We have launched a marketing and fundraising campaign aimed at local businesses offering a variety of ways in which they might support our group under their C.S.R. programme.
We entered and won the Not-for-Profit Organisation Excellence Award at the Fingal Dublin Business Excellence and Corporate Responsibility Awards 2014

By the end of February 2016 we had raised enough to purchase our base. It is a shell and core unit and now we have launched ‘Phase 2’ of our fundraising campaign to raise the funds needed to fit it out to our special needs.
We now need YOUR ASSISTANCE in raising the remainder needed to succeed.